


River

by Kyra



Category: The Office (US) RPF
Genre: Acting, Boston, Christmas, F/M, Gen, Reverse Chronology, Writers Guild of America Strike, Yuletide, Yuletide 2007
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-25
Updated: 2007-12-25
Packaged: 2017-12-09 04:28:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/769981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyra/pseuds/Kyra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five Christmases, more or less, new to old.</p>
            </blockquote>





	River

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cashewdani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cashewdani/gifts).



> This is a work of fiction. Written for cashewdani for Yuletide 2007. I tried to get in as many of your prompts as I could -- I hope you like!

**v. it don't snow here, it stays pretty green _[December 2007, season 4]_**

"Do you know what day it is?" Angela says when Jenna picks up the phone.

"What day is it?" she says.

"It's Benihana Christmas Day," says Angela. Jenna frowns and finishes writing Andy's next vet appointment on the calendar.

"Wow, I guess it is," she says. A year ago tonight they were at Rainn's watching it air.

"No more warm nog for us," says Angela. "Hey, I'm here." A horn honks outside.

"Cool," says Jenna and hangs up.

"Hey!" Angela says when she climbs in the car, and leans across the front seat to hug her, despite the seatbelt, gearshift and pregnancy belly all in the way. Jenna's back still hurts when she drives, so Angela's the official chauffeur for prenatal yoga class.

"Oh, I meant to tell you what Warren said he heard about negotiations..." Angela says. Jenna gets strike updates from at least three different people every day; it's all anyone talks about anymore in town, this weird holding pattern, how tense everyone is, the crews that aren't getting paid, the limbo everything's in.

If a year ago was Christmas, a year ago she spent most of her real vacation thinking about Pam, wherever she was. How hard Christmas alone would be after all those years with someone else. The irony is not lost on her.

Outside the car window is a weary looking picket line. People are starting to get morbid, people are talking about a world where reality tv shifts the paradigm forever, where the industry never comes back like it used to be.

Angela honks the horn in solidarity and Jenna holds up her hand as they pass.

***

**iv. spinnin' & reelin' _[December 2006, season 3]_**

Rashida's leaning in the doorway of his trailer when he gets done cleaning up from gaming with Brian and David, which mostly means kicking the controllers vaguely out of the way and throwing out as many soda cans as he can gather up in one go.

"Yo," she says. She's still in her Karen clothes and she's holding one of those magic wand props. It's only September, but Christmas stuff has exploded all over the set.

"Hey!" he says, and leans down to flip on the Christmas lights Jenna had props send over last year because his trailer was too much of a guy trailer.

"BJ's right, you know," Rashida says. "Those lights are pretty gay."

John straightens up and mock-frowns.

"Hey," he says. "BJ can blow me."

Rashida laughs and comes the rest of the way in, shutting the door behind her.

"What are you doing?" she says. "Watch movies with me. I'm too tired for thinking."

"Be my guest," he says, nodding at the haphazard stacks in the corner. People bring in DVDs and then leave them and who has to deal with the consequences? John, that's who.

He watches her out of the corner of her eye as she crouches and rifles through them. The first few weeks it kept weirding him out to have her on set: SNL-afterparty-Rashida from his life a year ago sitting next to him in hair-and-makeup or at the craft services table. Now that they're back to shooting with everyone else it's starting to seem normal, starting to feel real.

"Oh, yes," she says, and puts something in the DVD player. "Come here," she orders, hiking herself up to the couch, and he wanders over. "I brought you an inedible present," she adds.

"Gee, thanks, Spillipelli," he says. She's been shooting scenes with Jenna all day and he stayed on set watching them after he was done.

"Hi," she says as he sits down and she leans in and kisses him. He honestly didn't think this would start again, but apparently it has, if differently. He kind of gets the feeling it might not have really been his own idea, but he's not complaining, even about keeping it quiet. Not like he wants to have five hundred interviews about Jim real-life dating Pam's rival. Not like he wants to have to explain what happened if it doesn't work again. But--"

"Hi," he says, when she pulls back, and then the movie starts and he blinks at the tv.

"The Grinch?" he says. "Where did you even find this? And really, in September?"

"Are you serious?" she says. "I'm feeling more Christmasy than I ever do at the real Christmas. Besides, don't you want to get in character? Don't you wanna be method?"

"Oh, you want method?" he says and pulls her toward him.

By the time they stop, the Grinch's dog is having some serious problems with fake antlers.

"Mmm," says Rashida drowsily, sliding down the couch to rest her head in his lap. "I love this movie. Did you know they thought casting Boris Karloff would make the Grinch too scary?"

She's the coolest girl he's ever known, and she knows everybody he ever dreamed of meeting and she'll still watch old cartoons with him on his ratty couch after she's done shooting.

"Mindy and I are going shopping tomorrow," she adds, yawning, and after a few minutes she starts snoring lightly, in that cute girl way all girls think they snore, but usually don't.

John waits until he's sure she won't wake up before carefully reaching for this week's script to go over his lines again. It's a long script, and of course he gets sucked into rereading even the scenes he's not in. On screen the Grinch's heart grows three sizes. Rashida rolls over in her sleep, rubbing her face against his knee.

**

**iii. the time is now, the place is here _[December 2005, season 2]_**

The weird thing about watching any of the episodes is that it always feels like they just shot them. Jenna's wandering around after the Christmas Party viewing and she's feeling the nostalgia for the fake Christmas they had in October when they filmed it mixing with the real Christmasy buzz she's getting from the decorations Larry's wife has up everywhere.

She bumps into John as she's coming out of the bathroom. He's wearing one of the "A real man makes his own luck" t-shirt Angela got everyone, over his other shirt. He's been doing impressions of Ken and Greg all night, whenever they're out of the room and he looks flushed and happy. She wonders if he did her while she was gone, and what exactly that consists of.

"Hey!" she says. "What's up?"

"Great episode," he says, and she nods forcefully.

"Yeah," she says. "You were seriously, seriously amazing tonight."

He takes compliments badly, which she enjoys. He blushes and looks down, shifting on his feet, and she leans against the wall. "Yeah, well," he says. "You're the one who's made of magic and puppies. Seriously, you have to tell me how you get better each week."

("John loooooves you," BJ said to her on Halloween, his head on her lap and the bowl of candy on his stomach even though trick-or-treaters stopped coming hours ago.

"Um, it's called acting, Beej," she said. On the tv a girl was getting murdered in an impressively gory way. It's still no Slither.

"Um, it's called, I totally know how John acts when he has a crush on a girl," BJ mimicked. "It's so adorable I might just throw up."

"Well, maybe you should stop mixing candy corn and beer," she said, and smacked his hand away from the remote. He tilted his head up so he was looking at her upside down and she smoothed out her expression. Maybe he couldn't tell she was blushing.)

The thing is, it's not like she likes John, and she really doubts he actually likes her. Mostly he's like a kid brother, kind of goofy and sweet; but then there are 14 hours of being Pam, day after day, and Pam does like him, in these swirly secret-from-herself kinds of ways and -- it's strange. Who knew this was what playing a character long term did to you?

"Oh, shut up," she says, and squeezes his hand. He doesn't let go and she lets their hands swing. The hallway's dim and everyone else is in other rooms. "So are you going to get seasick tomorrow?" she asks. They're starting shooting on location, on a boat, and she's trying to stay up late tonight to get herself prepared for the new schedule, but she just feels dizzy and silly with tiredness. She needs to go home and run her lines again. Every time she goes through this script it makes her heart ache more.

"Actually I'm planning to take a ton of Dramamine just for fun," John says. "And play all my lines like Christopher Walken."

"Good," she says. "Awesome. I think that'll really bring something to the role." He grins and then tugs her in by their joined hands.

"Hey, Merry Christmas, Jenna," he says, leaning down to hug her, and she stands on tiptoe to hug him back.

"Merry Christmas," she says.

"Hey, so," she says, after she steps back. "When are you going to tell me what you wrote in that card?"

He shakes his head as they walk back towards the living room.

"When are you going to stop asking?"

At the door she squeezes his hand and drops it. Everyone's rewatching the episode already; it's the end, with the fake-snow snowball fight, and it makes her remember how giddy and homesick everyone got. David and John throwing fistfuls of snow at each other, BJ trying to sneak it down the back of Mindy's shirt.

Jenna finds her spot and curls up on the floor beside Angela, who tells her they're getting drinks tomorrow at The Grove with Brian, okay?

"Yep," says Jenna. Across the room John meets her eye and smiles.

***

**ii. the beds were small, but we felt so young _[December 2005, season 2]_**

Mindy's never been so psyched to be picking her way over piles of slushy snow. Everyone thinks living in California is so glamorous but it's actually really terrible and bright and she was emo and homesick for like a million years after she moved there.

"Maybe I'm just an East Coast girl," she said to Bren on the phone like 500 times. "This LA waify starlet anti-hipster lifestyle sucks balls. I need New York."

She likes LA better now and Boston's not New York, but there's still something awesome about getting to wear a coat again and knowing how to get around and having a Dunkin' Donuts on every corner. It feels like home, even if staying at her parents' house does kind of make her also feel like a chubby 13 year old obsessed with SNL all over again.

"Seriously, dude, I'm not even kidding, we have to start that franchise," John is saying up ahead of her. "Bring Dunks to the people."

"We'll be new kings of Hollywood," BJ says tonelessly, and John holds the bar door for him and Mindy.

Mindy guesses she started hanging out with BJ because they're both the kids in the writer's room, and they both have to be on set a lot, too, and they have that East Coast thing, and then BJ's mom called and told him that John's mom told her that he was lonely so he started inviting John along and basically they've hung out a lot this year. She didn't expect BJ to call two days after Christmas, though, and she's surprised how pumped she is to see both of them. Greg's always saying they're all in a 30-way codependent relationship with the show and each other, and maybe that's true.

They drink. Mindy orders something called a flirtini and the boys drink beer because they are boys and then BJ orders scotch because he likes to pretend he's all manly and then there's more beer and Mindy has some beer herself, because she can be the kind of badass chick who drinks beer, etc etc etc.

BJ and John are arguing about some boy thing -- baseball and she is so not in the mood for that, and BJ's hand is ever so slowly creeping up the back of Mindy's shirt as he talks. Which is so typical.

Drunk BJ will suck face with anyone -- even her, a few times. And on one notable occasion even sober, this summer, when she was camped out on his couch writing the season premiere. She's thinking of trying to change that, though -- the "with anyone" and "occasionally" part -- because she's only human, and he's only exactly the kind of jackass she always ends up trying to make her boyfriend. She thinks she could totally rock this as a New Year's Resolution.

And then the lights come on because last call comes so fucking early in Boston, she always forgets.

Trying to hail a cab takes for-fricking-ever, and she's freezing because she's never in her life been known to turn down a cuter outfit for a warmer one.

"John, you're taller, go jump in front of everyone or something," she says, but his phone rings and apparently it's his agent and he wanders off around the corner.

"Shouldn't you not talk to professional people when you're loaded?" Mindy says.

"Yeah, no, totally," BJ says, and grabs her by the hand, which doesn't make any sense if he's trying to get a cab and -- oh. He kisses her up against the front of the bar, and he's all hot and boozey-smelling pressed against her, warm wherever she's cold, his mouth smearing her lipgloss. Mindy winds her arms around his neck and kisses back.

"Oh my god," John says amiably and she can feel BJ jump before he pulls back.

"Cab!" Mindy says, to save any of them from saying anything else, because miraculously one's finally pulled up.

When they're all crammed in the back, Mindy gives the driver her address. "And these jerkwads are going to Newton," she says. Which is in, like, the complete opposite direction from Cambridge, but whatever, it's not like she's paying.

BJ and John are squabbling about Christopher Guest, and they keep shoving each other and laughing. If she gets an elbow in the eye, she is so telling makeup it was them.

"Mindy, I'm drunk," BJ says, looking over at her with his blue, blue eyes.

"No shit, Sherlock," she says, and John lets out a high laugh. "John, you're giggling," she says.

"Oh, I'm sorry," says John, with an attempt at sounding dignified that's pretty pitiful for an actor. "Is this the Mindy Police?"

The cab takes a left turn and Mindy can see lights and snow and the cloudy pink sky. Her second episode airs in two weeks, and everyone laughed a lot during the concussion parts at the table read, so hopefully that's a good sign.

The cab pulls up outside her parents' house. All the lights are off and the curb is snowy.

"Bye guys," she says. "See you on the flip side."

"Mindy!" John says, and fistbumps her.

"Goodbye, Benjamin," she says, and BJ holds up a peace sign from where he's leaning on John's shoulder looking kind of pasty. Mindy shakes her head and climbs out into the cold air.

***

**i. teach my feet to fly _[before]_**

"I can't believe I was about to give up," Jenna says for probably the thirtieth time. "I just, I thought Lollilove was going to be it, and I was okay with that, I was just going to stop, and then I got the part." And her favorite Jim did, too, and they've already talked on the phone twice today and--

"I know, baby," James says sleepily from the other side of the bed. He rolls over and kisses her on the forehead. "You're going to be perfect and amazing. Now let me go to sleep."

Jenna lies in the dark and smiles at the ceiling.

***

**0\. it's coming on Christmas _[December 2007, season 4]_**

"Hey, is that mine?" Angela says as Jenna finishes addressing an envelope. She's wearing one of Jenna's AE sweaters as a maternity top, after she declared Jenna's closet open shopping zone.

"Yes," says Jenna, and seals the envelope. Angela's been making fun of her all day for her four-step card-making process, but she's almost done.

"Can I see?" Angela asks.

"No," says Jenna with aplomb. "It will be delivered to you by the US Postal Service.".

"Aw, Jen, come on!" Angela says, but she's laughing. "Hey, I was thinking," she adds, sliding into the chair across from Jenna. "About how I'll rearrange my trailer for baby stuff, you know, for set visits," she says. "Although I'm sure half of it will just migrate over to yours."

She's been thinking, too: at least wherever Pam is, they left her happy. Things are going to be okay for her.

Jenna smiles, seals her last card and listens.

**Author's Note:**

> Songs used for section headings:  
> Joni Mitchell, River - sections v, i and 0  
> Creed Bratton, Spinnin' & Reelin' - section iv  
> Run DMC, Christmas in Hollis - section iii  
> Low, Just Like Christmas - section ii.


End file.
